Slippery Rock Gazette

Sharon Koehler

Stone Industry Consultant

Imagine: You are the new kid on the block. You have no previous stone experience. In 2016 you come across a great opportunity, and you buy a stone business – a quarry to be exact – and you spend 6 years trying to build your business doing things the way they have always been done, and getting frustrated by the antiquated process.

What do you do? You create a platform that is a whole new way for quarries and distributors to do business with each other that modernizes “the way it’s always been done,” and offers a simple, expedient solution to handle the sales process. 

Let us introduce you to Patrick Wells, owner of Majestic Stone since 2016 and the creator of the stone sales platform StoneLoads. Patrick had no prior stone experience when he purchased Majestic Stone, operating in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with quarries located on Dayton Mountain, but he felt that his manufacturing experience would nevertheless be extremely valuable in his new venture. After a while, he realized that the old way of buying stone from quarries was a quagmire of paperwork, unproductive sales calls, and red tape. 

L to R, founders: David Martin, Natalie Martin, Patrick Wells, John Bryant

Patrick also realized that there was a huge disconnect between what the quarry could do and what the distributors thought they could do. He knew there had to be a better way… enter technology.  

He and a few other forward-thinking individuals researched, designed, and launched StoneLoads aka stoneloads.com, an online platform where quarries and distributors can come together and do business in a fast, simple, all-inclusive way. 

Stoneloads.com went live in May 2022, just over a year ago. Despite its short time in the market, it has made a big enough impact on our industry that they were awarded two TISE awards in February 2023 at the Las Vegas show.  StoneLoads was recognized as Best of Product and Best of Sustainability/Disruption, and they were named a “Company to Watch in 2023” by CitiScope magazine, published in and for Chattanooga. Patrick himself has been a guest on the Stone World Podcast, Scenic Roots, and FreightWaves’ What the Truck?!? Podcasts. He is very involved with NSI and says the NSI has given him an immeasurable amount of support, plus he is on the advisory committee for North American Quarries.

John Bryant, another key contributor, co-founder, and COO of the company has been featured in Authority magazine. John had years of experience in distributor sales and worked for Patrick at Majestic Stone. He brought those unique skills and insights to the platform to help create the streamlined, efficient purchasing process.

It’s actually a very simple process for quarries to join the platform. Once they apply and are vetted, usually by visits from Patrick, each quarry is responsible for keeping their own inventory up to date and current in real time. Not every quarry is allowed on the platform. They can be refused for business practices or other reasons. And, once on the platform, quarries can be removed due to business practices and other reasons, as well. 

Distributors can also easily join the platform and can search nationwide for the product they need. Once they find it, they can purchase and arrange shipping all at one time. The great thing is that now searches can be done across the nation instead of just local sourcing. 

To that issue, Patrick made an excellent point: “There are quarries in Oklahoma that are crushing Flagstone because they have 3 to 5,000 pallets on the ground. Well, that same product? I know distributors in Atlanta, who can’t get enough of it. 

“And that doesn’t make sense to me. How you have quarries where the pallets are literally rotting underneath the stone, and then you have people who can’t buy enough, that need more of it, and are ultimately being pushed away to an import product because the supply chain from domestic quarries isn’t strong enough. That’s what this platform is built for.”

Above: StoneLoads home page and “Tennessee / Color / Brown Stone” search parameters.   Below: StoneLoads site members can search for the stone and color they need, place their order, and pay for the shipment all in 3 easy steps. Affiliated stone sources are tagged with the NSI logo.

Below: Through StoneLoads, hardscaping distributors have access to stone types and colors outside their local market.

Loads are sold by the truckload, not just pieced out. They are sold to distributors, not the general public. They have firewalls in place to prevent just “anyone” from seeing pricing. A company has to apply to have an account. The account is free, but StoneLoads is very clear about who they allow to buy on their site. StoneLoads accounts are reserved for landscape supply yards and stone distributors. No contractors or homeowners are allowed access to the StoneLoads marketplace. 

There are literally just 3 steps to the whole process:

1) Suppliers create a product listing including specifications, photos, weight, and pricing. 

2) Buyers shop on the platform and place orders.

3) The load ships and payment is made to the seller.

Everything happens on the StoneLoads platform. No going from site to site for product, payment, and shipping. In December 2022, they partnered with Loadsmart out of Chicago, to offer shipping and they also partner with Stripe, a payment app. There is always an option to pick up the product. The process is all-inclusive and easy on StoneLoads. 

“We in the stone business tend to over-complicate things. The question that I asked myself over and over was: ‘Does it truly have to be that complicated?’ I understand it’s natural stone. I understand there are variations. I understand the nuances of natural stone and the importance for the end user to know about natural stone, the maintenance of it, the care of it. I understand all that. But from a supplier to distributor standpoint, our job is to educate the distributors and let the distributors educate the end users. Other than that, let’s get stone on pallets, take a few pictures of it and let’s give people the opportunity to buy it. Make sure it’s quality product and get it on down the road. That’s what we are trying to do, and we are trying to make it simple.”

Currently, StoneLoads handles outside landscaping and hardscapes material such as dimensional stone, flagstone, pavers, stack stone, boulders, etc. They have 103 quarries represented on the site, and roughly 280 distributors that represent over 500 locations across the country. The site is free for buyers/distributors. Quarries do pay a small commission fee when the load is sold. 

Per Patrick: “Our target is to get 1,500 distributors and another 200 plus quarries. We started in the southeast and we are working our way out. We have one Colorado quarry and one Idaho quarry, plus we have two Pennsylvania quarries, and as you know, Pennsylvania Bluestone is sold nationwide. 

Patrick continued, “That puts a big emphasis on this coming year. These are two big markets that we need to get stronger in. We have strong suppliers in those markets who have sold material on our site, but we need to get more aggressive to get distributors in those markets on our site. We are working on ways to do that.”

When asked if he eventually wanted to expand to the more custom aspects of stone like marble or granite, he did say that was in the plans, but since this was such a new venture, they wanted to solidify the landscaping/hardscaping areas first. They do have some of the marble and granite quarries on their site already, but they are currently only promoting their landscaping and hardscaping materials. 

StoneLoads does have an admittedly lofty goal of having every domestically quarried item on their site in the next 5 years. One of the things that StoneLoads does is level the playing field for all quarries. A mom-and-pop quarry will have the same opportunity to showcase and sell their product just like the larger, more commercial quarries do. There is a chance and a space for everyone. 

“I love seeing the industry grow and hopefully, over a little bit of time, StoneLoads will do its part in strengthening the supply chain, as well. Healthy suppliers create a healthy industry. “

The site is simple enough to access. Just go to: https://stoneloads.com. Look around. See what they have to offer. If you have any questions, you can email Patrick directly at patrick@stoneloads.com. In Patrick’s own words, “This is a game- changer!”